Monday, October 3, 2016

The title of the book says it all - the science is well researched and there are serious answers to a variety of hypothetical (and largely irrelevant considering their feasibility). At times the science gets to be a little too detailed for casual reading.

There is a touch of humour which runs through most of the questions which make for great reading. For instance, to a question on what would be the consequences to Earth in case the sun dies - Randall launches into a detailed explanation of all the positives, and finally ends by saying that we would all be dead though and not in a position to reap any of the mentioned benefits.

There are a number of interesting questions such as - when would facebook have more dead people than living, what happens if you are caught up in lightning, what would happen is extremely powerful earthquakes and also very feeble ones, can we get rid of the common cold if we all stayed away from each other for 2 weeks, is it feasible to move all of mankind off Earth....etc.....A few of the questions selected for detailed explanations could have been better though.